Leading Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corporation has invested an undisclosed amount in the U.K.-based ACAL Energy Ltd, a developer of low-cost fuel cell systems.

The investment, made through Sumitomo’s investment arm SC Green Tech Ventures LLC, is in addition to the previously announced GBP 3.3 million ($4.8 million) fundraising round completed at the beginning of December 2008 and led by Carbon Trust Investments and Solvay SA.

ACAL Energy will use all funds raised to continue development of its fuel cell systems, based on a unique platinum-free cathode technology. The technology replaces the expensive precious metal catalyst found in conventional fuel cells with a proprietary, low-cost liquid catalyst. The company expects to introduce a 1kW demonstration system in 2009.

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We are accustomed to splitting trading into technical and fundamental buckets. Both involve crunching data; one set includes market fundamentals and the other pure price data. Alternative data is a third bucket that is gaining traction.